English town honors its Titanic hero

Posted on 14th April 2012 in The monuments of world

GODALMING, England — He had just landed his biggest assignment yet, senior telegraph officer on the world’s biggest ship. On the second day of its maiden voyage, he celebrated his 25th birthday.

Four days later, in the first minutes of April 15, 1912, Jack Phillips was at his post in the wireless room of the Titanic, sending out distress signals and cries for help in Morse code.

“CQD CQD,” Phillips tapped out. Calling all ships — distress. “Come at once. We have struck a berg.”

He relayed coordinates, listened for replies, shot back his own. He tried using the new international distress call: SOS. Over the next two hours, he pleaded for other ships to come to the Titanic’s aid, increasingly urgent appeals couched in impersonal dots and dashes.

Titanic: One hundred years later

“Require immediate assistance. We have collision with iceberg…. Sinking head down…. Come soon as possible…. Women and children in boats.

“Cannot last much longer.”

The flurry of missives would offer historians and buffs of the world’s most famous shipwreck a trove of information, lending a sense of immediacy to events long past.

“They’re the only documents from that night in real time. It’s sort of like SMS messages that come out of disasters” nowadays, or texting, said Sean Coughlan, a BBC reporter and coauthor of the 1993 book “Titanic: Signals of Disaster.”

Among the fastest radio operators in the business, Phillips had started out as a telegraph boy a decade earlier at his local post office here in Godalming, where residents will honor him at a special service Sunday, 100 years to the day that the Titanic went down in the North Atlantic.

Church bells will ring out over a refurbished park named after him. Amateur radio operators have set up transmitters in Godalming with a special call sign to commemorate the anniversary and Phillips’ dedication.

The local museum has mounted an exhibition on the life of the man whose quick fingers and steely calm under pressure saved hundreds of lives, as nearby ships steamed to the rescue of those who managed to get off the supposedly unsinkable luxury liner.

Would he be one of them?

*

He was born John George Phillips on April 11, 1887, the year Queen Victoria celebrated 50 years on the throne. His father managed a draper’s shop in Farncombe, a district of Godalming, where the local headmaster described Jack as “a good all-rounder with a high sense of duty.”

After leaving school to work in the post office, Jack excelled at radio telegraphy and easily passed the civil service exam. At 19, he decided to sign up for more training with the Marconi company and make his name as a shipboard operator.

Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of shortwave radio, had established a lucrative business installing wireless rooms and operators on ships such as the Titanic, which liked to boast state-of-the-art technology. Phillips and his deputy on board, Harold Bride, were employees of the Marconi company, not of the White Star Line itself. (The “M” on their caps distinguished them from other crew members.)

At the time, the wireless was an expensive novelty used more for social purposes, usually for rich passengers to send chatty telegrams, than for safety. Captains could pass along important information to one another if needed, but the bulk of the radio traffic was commercial — and personal.

“Arrive Wednesday, Titanic maiden voyage, meet me, vessel worth seeing, William,” one passenger told a friend in Connecticut, hours before the ship vanished beneath the waves.

Others described the splendid weather. A businessman asked a waiting pal in Los Angeles to rustle up a card game. “No seasickness, all well, notify all interested poker. Business good.”

“Hello, Boy, dining with you tonight in spirit, heart with you always, best love, Girl,” a pining lover declared, out in the middle of the Atlantic.

“They were just sending postcards….’Oh my God, it’s fabulous, you have to do this next year,’ ” said Susanne Weber, who teamed up with Coughlan to create a mechanically voiced, spoken version of the messages from that night, part of the BBC’s coverage of the centenary. The radio program, “Titanic — In Her Own Words,” airs on the BBC World Service.

“It makes you weep,” she said, knowing what lay in store.

*

On the day of the disaster, Phillips was exhausted. He and Bride had spent hours fixing a fault in the radio, a successful repair job whose later importance he could hardly have guessed. Tired but cheerful, Phillips told Bride, 22, that he would take the 8-p.m.-to-2-a.m. shift.

He worked quickly to clear the backlog of unsent messages, which contained the kind of brief but heartfelt greetings he himself regularly sent home to his twin sisters, Ethel and Elsie, on the back of picture postcards. He always signed off the same way: “Love, Jack.”

He thought little of the slight shudder the Titanic gave not long before midnight on April 14. Maybe a propeller blade had been thrown off, which wasn’t uncommon. No cause for alarm. Certainly not on this “grand new ship,” as he once described it to a friend.

But more than half an hour later, a worried Capt. E.J. Smith came to the wireless room and ordered Phillips to summon help. Bride soon joined him.

The first distress signals, “CQD,” went out about 12:15 a.m., April 15. Despite the gravity of the messages, some bear the jaunty, very British slang the operators used with one another, such as calling each other “OM” — “old man.”

“They were sort of a bit like the dot-com people, ambitious young men using a new technology,” Coughlan said. “They had their own private language talking to each other. They knew each other; they trained together.”

“We have collision with iceberg. Sinking. Please tell captain to come,” Phillips put out, repeating the call for assistance as often as he could. He slowed down his usual speedy delivery of Morse code to ensure that all operators in the area could understand him.

Replies pinged back, often at different strengths, often on top of one another, creating a din that made Phillips’ job even more difficult as the clamor around him increased.

“Are there any boats around you already?”

“We are rushing to you.”

“Am lighting up all possible boilers as fast as can,” the Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic, reported encouragingly.

At one point, an operator asked what the weather conditions were like. “Clear and calm,” Phillips answered, then followed up with some grim news: “Engine room getting flooded.”

By 1:45 a.m., pandemonium reigned on deck, help was still hours away, and the Titanic was almost in its final throes. Phillips kept to his post. “Engine room full up to boilers,” he tapped out.

The doomed vessel was losing power, and his signals grew fainter. Other ships tried frantically to get through. Shortly after 2 a.m., nearly out of hope, Smith released Phillips and Bride from duty, telling them: “It’s every man for himself.”

Bride rushed out. But Phillips didn’t budge, desperately attempting to call across the icy waters to whoever might pick up.

“V – v –” came one transmission, possibly a test signal Phillips was trying to send from the rapidly sinking boat.

Then, at 2:17 a.m.: “CQ—”

Then nothing. The Titanic, and Phillips, had fallen silent.

*

What happened to Phillips in those final minutes, before the ship sank at 2:20 a.m., remains a mystery. Did the power cut, and did he have time to flee the radio shack and scramble for a way off the almost vertical boat? Did the equipment pull away from the wall and crush him?

No one knows. The 25-year-old’s body was never recovered, making him one of the Titanic’s more than 1,500 victims.

“My own view is that he never left the shack. That’s just my gut instinct; he never tried to escape, never got away,” said Mandy Le Boutillier, a Titanic enthusiast and expert on Phillips who helped put together the exhibition about him at the Godalming Museum.

Soon after the disaster, Phillips turned into one of the heroes of the Titanic story. A portrait based on a photo of him — arms folded, looking spiffy in his uniform, a ghost of a smile on his boyish, handsome face — became an iconic image in Titanic lore.

There are those who take another tack, who say Phillips was partly to blame for the disaster for failing to pass along to the bridge some of the warnings from nearby ships of ice in the area. (Other warnings did get through, which officers either didn’t read or chose to ignore.) The 1958 film “A Night to Remember” portrays him as a gruff and panicky character, played by an actor much older than Phillips.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Godalming’s celebration of its native son tailed off around that time, Le Boutillier said. Before then, April 15 had been known as “Jack Phillips Day.”

But the lovely memorial park and cloister here, one of the biggest monuments anywhere to a single victim of the Titanic, remained. It was first opened in 1914, on the second anniversary of Phillips’ death. In a nearby cemetery, a monument to him sits on the family grave, in the shape, bizarrely enough, of an iceberg.

In recent years, Phillips has reemerged for many as a symbol of courage, commitment to duty and personal sacrifice.

“He did the best he could under the circumstances, and the best he could saved 700 people,” Le Boutillier said. “You can’t take it away from the guy. If you want a hero, this guy is a hero.”

On Sunday, while residents of Godalming honor their famous son, the Bonhams auction house in New York is set to sell off the last-known postcard Phillips sent to his sisters, who, like him, never married and had no descendants.

It was mailed on April 6, 1912, four days before the Titanic left the dock at Southampton, England. The front bears a depiction of the ill-fated steamer. On the back, in his old-fashioned handwriting, Phillips tells of a break he took on the Isle of Wight.

“Having glorious weather, went to Cowes yesterday. Will write later before we sail.

“Love, Jack.”

henry.chu@latimes.com

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Salzburg: Alive with 'The Sound of Music'

Posted on 11th April 2012 in The monuments of world

There are plenty of reasons to visit Salzburg, Austria’s fourth largest city set among the beautiful scenery of the Alps: the Old Town is renowned for its many well-preserved baroque buildings commissioned by the prince-bishops who ruled the independent ecclesiastical principality for centuries until the early eighteen hundreds. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born and brought up in the city and there are monuments to the composer all around. But for many, a trip to Salzburg is an excuse for a nostalgic tour of the sights of The Sound of Music, that unforgettable family tear-jerker that recounts the adventures of Maria von Kutschera and the von Trapp family, a film that marked the childhood of a generation.

Salzburg

Based on the true story told by Maria in her 1949 book The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, the 1965 film is one of the most famous productions in film history. Coming close on the heels of Mary Poppins, it, too, starred Julie Andrews, this time as Maria von Kutschera, the endearing novice at Nonnberg Abbey, sent to the von Trapp mansion as governess to the seven children of Baron von Trapp, a Naval officer and widower. Against the historical background of the Nazi annexation of Austria, Maria and the Baron, played on-screen by Christopher Plummer, fall in love and eventually make their escape with their children from Austria to freedom – although it was Hollywood which chose to have them fleeing clandestinely through their beloved mountains: in reality they travelled with relative ease by train through Italy and from there emigrated to America. There, after living for some time as the Trapp Family Singers, they bought a ranch in Vermont, where, under the management of some of their descendants, the Trapp Family Lodge continues to operate today as a hotel.

To follow the story of Maria, where better to start than the Benedictine Abbey of Nonnberg at the foot of the fortress which dominates the entire city? Founded in the eighth century by St. Rupert of Salzburg, the convent is the oldest women’s religious house in the German-speaking world. More importantly for Sound of Music fans, this is where Maria was a novice, and the scene of the film’s first song where the nuns describe their difficult aspirant as “A flibbertigibbet! A will-o’-the wisp! A clown!” before sending her to be governess to the Baron’s children. As Julie Andrews heads to the von Trapp house, reassuring herself by singing I have confidence in me, the audience is treated to a sight of Residenzplatz, one of the exquisite squares in the pedestrianised Old Town and site of the former home of the Prince-Archbishop, the magnificent Residenz Palace.

Salzburg

Maria comes dancing along the Hellbrunner Allee to Frohnburg Castle, whose facade and courtyard are seen in the film as the von Trapp family mansion. Other locations were used for other parts of the estate, including Leopoldskron Castle, a few miles from the centre, the setting for the boating scene when Maria has dressed the children in play outfits made from old curtains and they all end up in the water.

Perhaps the most famous of all the songs written for the original musical is Do-Re-Mi. In the film, Julie Andrews leads the children in singing this number over a montage of scenes of the city and surroundings: the mountains around Salzburg, the typical domed roofs of the old quarter, Hohensalzburg Castle, which presides over the city and the Pegasus fountains in the gardens of Mirabell Castle, a sumptuous complex built by the powerful Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Ratineau for his mistress, commoner Salome Alt, and their fifteen children.

Elsewhere in the film other landmarks of the city appear: Hellbrun Palace, where the children played around the fountains, the Felsenreitschule, scene of the farewell recital, and St. Peter’s Cemetery, through which the family flee the Nazis. Other locations on the outskirts of Salzburg include Anif Palace, Hohenwerfen Castle, the cathedral at Mondsee – where the grand wedding between Maria and Baron von Trapp takes place, and the picturesque rural scenery of Fuschl, St. Gilgen and Lake Wolfgang.

Although most of us take The Sound of Music for granted, many Salzburgers only discovered the film through the thousands of foreigners who now come to the city each year to follow in the footsteps of Maria and visit the scenes that delighted them as children. And the locals find it even quite bemusing to learn that many of these visitors are convinced that Edelweiss, that moving melody sung in the movie by the Baron as a patriotic challenge in the face of Nazi authority, is not the Austrian national anthem, not even an Austrian folk song, but the last of the many wonderful show tunes that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote as a team.

Sound of Music

THE PRACTICALITIES

Best time to visit
Each season in Salzburg has its own particular charm, but the sunny days of the film are more likely to be seen between late spring and early autumn. In late July, the annual five-week Salzburg Festival begins, offering an extensive programme of music and drama.

Getting around
Salzburg is perfect for exploring on foot and there is good public transport available for visits to the surrounding area.

Where to stay
Two of the city’s finest hotels are those where the stars themselves stayed: Julie Andrews and director Robert Wise were at the aristocratic Österreichischer Hof, now remodelled and transformed into the five-star Hotel Sacher, while Christopher Plummer, stayed at the Bristol, which also offers five-star quality.

Where to eat
For relaxation after the day’s shooting schedule was complete, the bar at the Bristol proved a favourite among the team, although visitors will get a more authentic taste of local cuisine and ambience at Zum Eulenspiegel (Hagenauerplatz, 2), a charming inn opposite the birthplace of Mozart, or at Zum Mohren (Judengasse, 9), located in a fifteenth-century building. Alternatively, you can enjoy a Mozart Dinner Concert combining fine dining by candlelight with glorious live music by artists in period costume.

The movie trail
Panorama Tours offer half-day excursions to the scenes of the film for 37€. Another novel option is Fraulein Maria’s Bicycle Tour , organising cycle tours of the movie locations from May to September.

Don’t miss…
The Salzburg Marionette Theatre has a wide repertoire which includes The Sound of Music, and until June 2012, the Salzburger Landestheater are also performing the musical.

Further information:
Austrian Tourist Board
Salzburg Tourism

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Survivor's tale among gems in 'Titanic Tragedy'

Posted on 11th April 2012 in The monuments of world

“TITANIC TRAGEDY: A NEW LOOK AT THE LOST LINER” By John Maxtone-Graham. W.W. Norton & Co., $24.95.: A

John Maxtone-Graham did something that’s tough to do after a century of documentation of one of the world’s greatest sea disasters.

He found a survivor of the Titanic who, he says, no one else had ever interviewed — ship stewardess Violet Jessop, who jumped from a lifeboat that was being sucked toward one of the liner’s huge, still-rotating propellers before it sank. She suffered a knock on the skull that gave her a concussion and caused her hair never to grow properly for the rest of her life. Her tale, recorded by Maxtone-Graham in 1971, is breathtaking.

Jessop is just one gem in “Titanic Tragedy” — one of the many books released 100 years after the disaster.

Finding something new in a historic event that has been chronicled in every way possible — from news-paper articles in the days following the sinking, to books to movies, to TV specials and even to dives to the ship itself — is like sticking your hand in the cushions of a thrift-store couch and pulling out a 1912 $20 gold piece.

It just doesn’t happen.

But it did for Maxtone-Graham, a maritime historian who takes a different approach in his book than most other works on the doomed liner.

Instead of writing a sweeping history, he focuses on smaller and sometimes peripheral bits of the tragedy, starting with Samuel Morse and Guglielmo Marconi. The former perfected an alphabetical code that allowed signals to be transmitted along a wire, and the latter figured out how to send that code through wireless technology.

Maxtone-Graham credits both with saving roughly 700 souls out of about 2,200 on board. Had a liner passing about 50 miles away not picked up a Morse signal — C.Q.D., an early distress signal, not the now–common S.O.S. — sent from Titanic’s wireless Marconi radio set, there is a good chance that all of the ship’s passengers would have perished in the iceberg-clogged North Atlantic.

An odd footnote: Marconi and his family had been invited to sail on the Titanic’s maiden voyage. But pressing business in New York led him to book passage aboard a faster liner, Lusitania, that sailed earlier than Titanic. His wife, Beatrice, and their children did not board Titanic, either. One of the children took ill, Maxtone-Graham writes, and she and the kids watched from the shore near their home in Southampton as the liner steamed toward the English Channel.

Maxtone-Graham gives similar treatment to the Ocean Dock in Southampton, where Titanic tied up before starting the Atlantic crossing; to Carpathia, the small Cunard liner that picked up the wireless signal and packed itself stem to stern with the survivors; and to the victims among the crew and the statues, plinths and other monuments erected to them on both sides of the Atlantic.

There’s much more in the little 217-page book, but I’ll leave that for you to discover. “Titanic Tragedy” is a don’t-miss for both the Titanic historian and those with just a passing curiosity about a night to remember in April 1912.

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The Bristol Festival of Ideas

Posted on 2nd April 2012 in The monuments of world
  • Andrew Kelly
    • Ramadan
    Tariq Ramadan will discuss the potential for progress in Islamic societies, following last year’s revolutions in north Africa. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

    As a young schoolboy in Bristol, Peter Higgs was so inspired by the life and work of the Nobel prize-winning Paul Dirac that he pursued a career in physics. Decades later Higgs is the focus of worldwide attention as the Large Hadron Collider seeks to prove whether the Higgs boson particle exists.

    Bristol has always been a good place for the development and delivery of ideas. Dirac regarded his education in the city – in physics, mathematics and engineering – as crucial to his own career. Isambard Kingdom Brunel came to Bristol to build bridges, ships and railway lines, helping Britain lead the world in the industrial revolution. Thomas Beddoes’s Pneumatic Institution attracted some of the great thinkers, writers and scientists at the end of the 18th century and is where Humphry Davy developed laughing gas.

    It’s also been an innovative centre for the arts and media: Lyrical Ballads was first published here, establishing English romanticism; Angela Carter started her writing career in the city; the Bristol Old Vic has been a beacon of drama; the musicians Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky, among others, are known worldwide; the street artist Banksy was able to create much of his best work here; and if you want to see the digital future, the Pervasive Media Studio is pioneering work in the creative industries at the Watershed.

    Social movements feature strongly in Bristol’s history – from the campaign to abolish slavery (in one of the cities most benefiting from the trade), through Tony Benn’s rejection of his peerage, to the bus boycott that paved the way for the Race Relations Act of 1965. It has the “softer” factors, too: the places for effective networking, the people making connections so that ideas can be created, shared, fostered and delivered.

    Bristol festival of ideas, now in its seventh year, celebrates all ideas that can help change the world for the better. Bringing together arts and sciences, it hosts an intensive 12-day programme of debates each May, as well as special events, exhibitions, books, business events and academic projects at other times.

    Our Bristol Genius theme celebrates city ideas. The city’s aviation industry has, over a century of continuous production, gone from aircraft made of wood and paper through the supersonic age to today, where Airbus and Rolls-Royce, among others, are seeking to create more energy-efficient air transport. Sustrans built a national cycle network from its base in Bristol. The BBC’s world-famous natural history films are made here, as are Aardman’s Oscar-winning animations. And the work of Bristol’s two universities in pioneering law, health, advanced engineering and environmental improvements, are promoting better-functioning, greener cities.

    But everyone must learn, too, from the ideas of others. This May, the festival will have sessions on the brain; optimism; the science of Peter Higgs; Angela Carter’s work in film and television; a celebration of geeks; the rise of China and India; the impact of worldwide protest and rebel cities; whether capitalism can be responsible; identity and the self; the possibility of today’s young people becoming a lost generation; the role of faith; and much more.

    It’s important that communities celebrate ideas, promote debate about ideas and help create new ones. Cities are ideal for this. Cities are also the future – if we get them right we might be able to offset some of the critical environmental and social problems the world faces. But we need to make them good places to live and work. Helping a city to think and debate is essential, as is promoting those ideas in the city more widely. But it’s essential to take inspiration from around the world so that we can learn from others as hopefully others learn from us. In that way ideas will help make us, our cities and our world better places.

    For further information on the festival, for venues, and to book tickets, visit www.ideasfestival.co.uk

    New world orders: politics and economics

    David Harvey

    One of the world’s most influential social scientists, Harvey places cities at the heart of both capital and class struggles, arguing that they have long been the pivotal sites of political revolutions, and remain the cradle of social and political change. Looking at locations ranging from Johannesburg to Mumbai, and from New York City to São Paulo, Harvey explores how cities might be reorganised in more socially just and ecologically sane ways, and argues that they could become the focus for anti-capitalist resistance.

    Stephen Armstrong, Katharine Quarmby and Guy Standing

    Changes in the world economy, neo-liberal policies and the recession have seen a considerable growth in unemployment, poverty, part-time working and welfare budget reductions, as well as reports of the poor treatment of elderly and disabled people. Guy Standing, author of The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, Katharine Quarmby (Scapegoat: Why We Are Failing Disabled People) and Stephen Armstrong (The Road to Wigan Pier Revisited) discuss whether we are giving up on the underprivileged. In their writings, all paint a picture of a nation that is ignoring the vulnerable, but all offer hope that a better society can be created.

    Tariq Ramadan

    A leading Muslim writer and commentator, Ramadan explores the opportunities and challenges across north Africa and the Middle East, as they look to create new, more open societies. Arguing that the debate cannot be reduced to a confrontation between the modern and secular and the traditional and Islamic, he shows that not only are these routes in crisis, but that the Arab world has a historic opportunity: to stop blaming the west, to jettison its victim status, and to create a new dynamic.

    Margaret Heffernan

    The distinguished businesswoman and writer examines what makes humans so prone to wilful blindness. The presiding judge in the 2006 case of the US government vs Enron instructed the jurors to take account of the concept of wilful blindness – if the defendants failed to observe the corruption that was unfolding before them, then not knowing was not a defence. The jury’s guilty verdict sent shivers down the spine of the corporate world. Ranging freely through history, and from business to science, government to the family, Heffernan explains why wilful blindness is so dangerous in today’s globalised world.

    Paul Mason

    As the global economic crisis gives way to social crisis, the gulf between the haves and have-nots becomes ever wider. Mason, the Newsnight reporter and writer, explores the causes and consequences of the current wave of revolt. He reports from the frontlines of protest, from Westminster to Wisconsin, arguing that the events of 2011 reflect the expanding power of the individual and a call for new political alternatives.

    Bidisha, Selma Dabbagh and John McCarthy

    Selma Dabbagh’s novel, Out of It, is a gripping tale of dispossession and belonging, treachery, loyalty and bravery that redefines Palestine and its people. She discusses Palestine with critic and broadcaster Bidisha (left), who toured the West Bank as a reporter in spring 2011 and whose book Beyond the Wall: Writing a Path Through Palestine is an unflinching portrait of life in the West Bank today. In a separate event, the journalist and writer John McCarthy, who was held hostage for five years in Lebanoncorrect, from 1986-91, draws on his experience in Beirut to tell the hidden story of the Palestinian struggle.

    Tom Watson MP

    The man who led the pursuit of News International in parliament, and is at the forefront of the Leveson inquiry, draws on unique information and access to tell the behind-the-scenes story of the phone hacking scandal, the connections between News Corporation, the police and politicians, and how they unravelled.

    Society & identity: lessons in life and new directions in a globalised age

    Tom Chatfield, John-Paul Flintoff, Roman Krznaric, Philippa Perry

    The School of Life Live offers an evening of fast and furious enlightenment. Covering subjects such as love, sex, work, money, emotional maturity, technology and changing the world, TSOL offers advice and inspiration for facing life’s biggest dilemmas. Combining researched material with common sense and humour, these playful and highly interactive sessions include lecture, performance, discussion and activity. Speakers include: Tom Chatfield, author of How to Thrive in the Digital Age; John-Paul Flintoff (How to Change the World); Roman Krznaric (How to Find Fulfilling Work), and Philippa Perry (How to Stay Sane).


    Elif Shafak


    Elif Shafak

    The bestselling author of The Bastard of Istanbul and The Forty Rules of Love, and the most widely read female novelist in Turkey, talks about the politics of immigration, fiction and identity, her essay, The Happiness of Blond People (her reflection on individuality and multiculturalism), and her new novel Honour, about a half-Kurdish, half-Turkish family.

    Noo Saro-Wiwa

    The author and daughter of the activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was brought up in England, but was taken back to Nigeria every summer. She discusses her return to Nigeria after a 10-year absence, and describes the corruption and inefficiency, but also the beauty of its rainforest, its ancient palaces and monuments, and its people.

    Richard Holloway and John Gray

    For 14 years, Richard Holloway was bishop of Edinburgh. Now, in discussion with political philosopher John Gray, the acclaimed writer takes us back through a life defined by the biggest questions – Who am I? and What is God? – and explains how, after many crises of faith, he finally left the Church.

    Harry Belafonte The singer and actor has been at the heart of the civil rights movement and countless other causes. He talks about both his career and his activism – the struggles, tragedies and, most of all, the triumphs of his life, alongside the likes of Martin Luther King Jr, Paul Robeson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sidney Poitier, John F Kennedy, Marlon Brando, Robert Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Tony Bennett and Bill Clinton. 

    Edmund White A talk by the novelist and cultural critic, who has penned many books, including the autobiographical A Boy’s Own Story, the memoir City Boy and now Jack Holmes and His Friend. His are beautiful explorations of sexuality and sensibility in American society.

    What if? – a festival of transition

    What if? helps us begin to imagine a better world. Andrew Simms and Eliane Glaser discuss how to tackle the problems that threaten society. Richard Murphy argues that it has never been more important for our elected representatives to serve the greater good. Tony Greenham asks what could be done with the banks. James Marriott describes how wildernesses are being exploited for energy when we cannot afford to burn the fossil fuels that have already been discovered. And Fred Pearce looks at the global impact of the rise in “land grabbing”.

    Observer writers at Bristol

    Ed Vulliamy

    Ed Vulliamy covered the war in Bosnia for the Observer 20 years ago. He recalls – 20 years ago –how he witnessed the violence unleashed by Serbian president Slobodan Miloševic and his allies, the Bosnian Serbs. Vulliamy has continued to report from the country and on the ensuing war crime trials ever since. He also talks about the “reckoning” – how, although the rest of the world has moved on, in Bosnia there has been no thaw in the hatred, and the war is still alive.

    Susannah Clapp

    Angela Carter’s literary executor (and Observer theatre critic) talks about the author’s life and legacy. Carter spent her formative years in Bristol and three early novels are known as the Bristol trilogy. The festival is showing films and TV programmes of and about her work, including the The Holy Family Album, which treats representations of Christ in western art as if they were photos in God’s album; the 1992 Omnibus programme Angela Carter’s Curious Room, which includes the last interview Carter gave; and The Magic Toyshop, for which she wrote the screenplay. Sir Christopher Frayling talks about the writer he knew and Clapp, Charlotte Crofts and Bidisha join him for a debate.

    Nick Cohen

    The belief that we live in age of unparalleled freedom is dangerously naïve, Cohen argues. The traditional opponents of freedom of speech – religious fanatics, plutocrats and dictatorial states – are thriving, and in many respects finding the world more comfortable in the 21st century than they did in the late 20th.

    Will Hutton

    The first Observer Kenote Lecture is: Can there be a responsible capitalism? As economies stumble, major expenditure cuts are made, bonuses increase for the wealthy and mass unemployment returns, questions are raised about the very nature of market economies. There seems little alternative to capitalism, however, so, Hutton argues, a more responsible capitalism needs to be created.

    Robin McKie

    The Observer‘s science editor leads a panel discussing the work of American conservationist Rachel Carson, whose Silent Spring is credited with advancing the cause of the global environmental movement. But how much progress has been made in the 50 years since? McKie will be joined by Lucy Siegle, the Observer‘s ethical correspondent; Norman Maclean, author of Silent Summer: The State of Wildlife in Britain and Ireland; Jonathon Porritt, Forum for the Futurecorrect; and Callum Roberts, author of Ocean of Life: How Our Seas Are Changingcorrect.

    Geeks: your time has come

    Mark Henderson and Angela Saini

    Mark Henderson (The Geek Manifesto: Why Science Matters) explains why the geeks of the world are no longer apologising for their obsessive interest in science and are gradually finding a powerful public voice. Delving inside the psyche of India’s science-hungry citizens, in her book Geek Nation, Angela Saini explores why the government of the most religious country on earth has put its faith in science and technology. Both writers make a compelling case that a new geek movement will transform politics and science.


    Nick Harkaway


    Nick Harkaway

    The speed at which our world is changing is both mesmerising and challenging. Novelist and tech blogger Nick Harkaway challenges the notion that digital culture is the source of all modern ills, while evealingsuggesting how the real dangers can be combated. Ultimately, he believes, the choice is ours: engage with the machines that we have created, or risk creating a world that is designed for corporations and computers, rather than people.

    Science: evolution to time travel

    Rebecca Stott, author, tells the story of how, a month after the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, Darwin was accused by the Reverend Powell of having taken credit for a theory that had already been discovered by others. Stott’s Darwin’s Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists is a masterful retelling of the collective daring of a few like-minded men who had the courage to publish their speculations at a time when to do so, for political as well as religious reasons, was to risk everything. It is the story of an idea that would change the modern world.

    Graham Farmelo and Peter Higgs These two giants of modern physics were both educated in Bristol schools. They will join Robin McKie, the Observer science editor, in a discussion about the life and work of Bristolian and Nobel prize-winning physicist Paul Dirac, who co-discovered quantum mechanics, predicted the existence of antimatter – and inspired the young Peter Higgs, who later predicted the Higgs boson particle. Experiments to find out if the Higgs boson exists are being carried out at the Large Hadron Collider. Graham Farmelo is author of The Strangest Man: The Life of Paul Dirac.

    Bruce Hood, an experimental psychologist, provides a fascinating examination of how the latest science shows that our concept of the self is an illusion. He argues that the self – the “me” inside me – is not a single entity but an ever-changing character, created by the brain to provide a coherent interface between the multitude of internal processes and the demands from the external world that require different selves.

    Claudia Hammond, broadcaster and writer, draws on the latest findings from psychology, neuroscience and biology, and original research on the way memory shapes our understanding of time, to delve into the mysteries of time. Hammond will show us how to manage time more efficiently, how to speed it up and slow it down at will, plan for the future with more accuracy and use the warping of time to our own advantage. Along the way, she introduces us to an extraordinary array of characters willing to go to great lengths in the interests of research.

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    Families of soldiers donate Nazi art theft pics

    Posted on 28th March 2012 in The monuments of world

    http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/03/ap-families-soldiers-donate-nazi-art-theft-albums-032812/

    By Jamie Stengle – The Associated Press
    Posted : Wednesday Mar 28, 2012 15:14:32 EDT

    DALLAS — Among the items U.S. soldiers seized from Adolf Hitler’s Bavarian Alps hideaway in the closing days of World War II were albums meticulously documenting an often forgotten Nazi crime — the massive pillaging of artwork and other cultural items as German troops marched through Europe.

    Two of those albums — one filled with photographs of works of art, the other with snapshots of furniture — were donated Tuesday to the U.S. National Archives, which now has custody of 43 albums in a set of what historians believe could be as high as 100.

    Robert M. Edsel, founder and president of the Dallas-based Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, which announced the discovery of the two new albums at a news conference, called them “key pieces of evidence taken from a crime scene that were prized possessions of Adolf Hitler.”

    Relatives of the two soldiers who took the albums contacted the foundation, which has previously donated two other albums in the series to the National Archives. They had read stories in the media about the foundation’s mission, which includes continuing the work of the Monuments Men, who helped Allied forces protect cultural treasures during World War II and helped return stolen items after the war.

    “We can only hope for more discoveries in the years to come,” U.S. Archivist David S. Ferriero said at the news conference.

    The Nazi agency Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, or ERR, created the series of albums to document the items taken from across Europe. Of the 43 albums identified so far, 39 were discovered in May 1945 at Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. They were then used as evidence at the Nuremberg trials to document the Nazi looting before eventually going to the National Archives.

    In 2007, the Monuments Men donated two additional albums after they were found in the attic of the family of a U.S. soldier, though the foundation has retained possession of one of those for the last few years as a teaching tool.

    “I think there’s a lot more of them out there,” said Edsel, who noted that the albums were used as “shopping catalogs” for Hitler to select works of art for various museums.

    Of the newly discovered albums, one contains photographs of 69 paintings that were taken as early as 1940. Most of those paintings appear to have been properly restituted, but an ERR database indicates four were not. The other newly found album contains photographs of 41 pieces of furniture, mostly taken from the Rothschild family.

    Edsel said that by 1951, the Monuments Men had processed and returned more than 5 million stolen objects.

    “It was the greatest treasure hunt in history — one that continues to this day,” Edsel said.

    Greg Bradsher, senior archivist at the National Archives, said the recently discovered albums are a reminder of the massive amounts of property Hitler took and a reminder that “to this day, hundreds of thousands” of items are not with their rightful owners.

    The albums are also “a reminder that a lot of soldiers in World War II brought souvenirs home — some of them were helmets, bayonets, medals, which are really bounty of war — but others picked up books, albums, other cultural property,” Bradsher said.

    One of the newly discovered albums, known as album 15, was taken by Pfc. Yerke Zane Larson, who served in the 501st Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division, the “Screaming Eagles.” Cpl. Albert Lorenzetti, who served in the 989th Field Artillery Battalion, took the other album — known as album 7 — the same week, also from Hitler’s home, called the Berghof. Both are now deceased.

    “When you consider what these solders went through, slogging their way through the loss of buddies, through horrible weather conditions, fighting, combat, etc., and then this momentous occasion when they had a chance to take a deep breath, go up there to the Berghof for no reason than to be able to tell their families and future generations, ‘I stood where Hitler’s home was,’” Edsel said. “That’s what motivated the taking of these things.”

    Larson’s daughter, Sandra Runde of Rapid City, S.D., said that she can remember her father taking the album out once or twice when she was growing up. Runde said her father, who returned from the war to take a job sweeping the floors at a restaurant supply company before eventually buying it and working there until he was 80, didn’t talk about the war and didn’t elaborate on the album beyond saying that it was from Hitler’s home.

    “It was just tucked away somewhere,” Runde said.

    Runde said her father, who died on his 87th birthday in 2009, gave the album to her about five years before he died. She said she’s happy that it’s now somewhere safe where people can appreciate it.

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    Gwen Zamora sizzles in ‘The Witness’

    Posted on 22nd March 2012 in The monuments of world
    Thursday, 22 March, 2012 Written by Isah V. Red

    Isah20Red.jpgWe watched the press screening of The Witness, a co-production between Skylar Pictures of Indonesia and GMA Films, at a cinema in the spanking Resorts World early this week.

    The film directed by Muhammad Yusuf, who earlier told us that his biggest influence as director is American director Michael Mann, features Gwen Zamora a Filipino British working in a hotel in Jakarta. She just moved in to the Indonesian capital from Manila when tragedy strikes her family.

    Her parents and sister are gunned down. She survives a gunshot, and is in coma for several days. Yet, the circumstances that led to her parents and sister’s death keeps playing in her mind, like a song that she can’t brush off.

    Yusuf builds up suspense slowly in this thriller. He constructs his film like a dream (images in slow motion, and Gwen’s slow movements) drawing us into a feeling of being in a dream state as well.

    In the story, Angel (Zamora), after the tragedy, is haunted by strange dreams of a young man attempting suicide.
    Using this is the leitmotif of the film that keeps repeating until Angel discovers that the man is Aris (Agung Saga) a rock singer-songwriter and boyfriend of her sister Safara (Kimberly Ryder). Kimberly’s father Nigel plays Angel and Safara’s father.

    So, what’s the connection between Aris and the murder? That is the question Angel is trying to solve, and meanwhile we witness how she is tortured mentally by the thought of the gunman slaying her family.

    Gwen Zamora is not known to be a drama actor. The few films she had appeared in were comedy, and she admitted that when she was shooting this picture in Jakarta she surprised even herself. The screenplay was emotionally demanding and she was required to be in a state of shock and grief for most of the film.

    In one scene where she walked slowly towards the room where the bodies of her family were, we thought that would just be it. But once inside the room and left alone, Zamora breaks down and we could feel the pain of seeing lifeless bodies of loved ones. I give her two thumbs up for her performance in this movie.

    Her fellow performers, particularly Marcelino Lefrandt, who plays the police investigator and who has the most scenes with the Filipino actor, were unanimous in saying that Zamora could be a big star in Southeast Asia after this film.

    Producer Sarjono Sutrisno, or Stro for short, handpicked Zamora from a shortlist of Filipino female actors and he’s not disappointed. “She delivered,” he said over lunch on Monday. “She was very cooperative during the shooting.”

    I just hope that Filipinos watch this film and not expect anything like a Filipino movie. We should watch it with an Indonesian film in mind, just like when we enter a cinema showing a Hollywood film, we know we are not going to watch Filipino actors goofing around.

       Basil’s OPM covers

    Basil Valdez is back with a new  album, simply titled Basil S. Valdez, a collection of some of the best works by present-day composers previously popularized by other artists.

    Basil has always excelled in interpreting new originals.  This time around though, his first album in five years is made up of covers.

    Among the songs are  “Kanlungan,” the first single composed by Romeo Dongeto of the folk rock band Buklod arranged by Ric Mercado.

    “Ikaw Na Nga” by Vehee Saturno arranged by Nino Regalado, first heard sang by Willie Revillame.

    “Muntik Nang Maabot Ang Langit” by Medwin Marfil of True Faith arranged by former Side A member Joey Benin.

    Metro Manila Popular Music Festival finalist “Minsan Pa” by Jose Mari Chan with lyrics by National Artist Rolando Tinio arranged by Beth Martin.

    Basil Valdez has been singing for the past 40 years and his career is one of the most successful in the history of Filipino music. Although he started out as a folksinger and later became a member of the Circus Band, it was as a soloist that he popularized many original works by Filipino composers.

    Basil’s catalogue of recorded songs includes many compositions that are now considered classics.  Among these are  “Ngayon At Kailan Man,” “Lift Up Your Hands,” “Kastilyong Buhangin,” “Gaano Kadalas Ang Minsan,” “Hindi Kita Malilimutan” and many others.

    Fans can catch him at Trinoma in Quezon City on April 1.

    25 years of empowering the Filipino

    TV Patrol, the country’s longest-running and leading Filipino primetime TV newscast, celebrated 25 years of patrolling the nation to deliver the biggest news and latest happenings while empowering citizens to become actively involved in nation-building.

    Noli De Castro, Korina Sanchez, and Ted Failon launched TV Patrol Balitandaan, 25 mini-monuments each revealed every week in landmarks where the 25 biggest news events in the last 25 years happened.

    TV Patrol undertakes “Beinte Singko Para sa Kabayan Ko,” to encourage Filipinos to drop 25 cents into TV Patrol in 25 provinces. P2.5 million, if raised, would be given to chosen beneficiaries.

    Its first 25 years saw a string of groundbreaking firsts for TV media — it became the first news program to deliver news on weekends and the first to be available online via live streaming — innovative steps to deliver relevant and timely news and cater to more Filipinos in the country and around the world. More notably, TV Patrol has redefined the concept of citizen empowerment by encouraging Filipinos to be active and vigilant.

    Belo tackles new procedures

    Acne scars is the problem tackled by cosmetic surgeon Dr. Vicki Belo in last Sunday’s episode of Salamat Dok, 7:30 to 8:30 on ABS-CBN.

    She discussed Fractional CO2, a laser treatment that effectively improves skin texture. It focuses on rebuilding collagen for a tighter and smoother skin tone.

    Also discussed were keloids and hypertrophic scars. Dr. Belo has the solution in Fractional CO2 that flattens and improves appearance of scars and via V-Beam, a laser that specifically targets redness.

    Another problem — stretch marks — was discussed in relation to Fractional needling, a procedure that makes use of a special device, which induces wound healing and collagen remodeling. A special growth factor serum is applied to the area to improve the appearance of stretch marks.

    Every third Sunday of the month, Dr. Belo guests in the program to discuss the newest procedures being offered by the Belo Medical Group. Bernadette Sembrano hosts the show.

    What they did for love?

    ABS-CBN’s newest and most-awaited Primetime drama starring Piolo Pascual, Jericho Rosales, Christopher de Leon, Cristine Reyes, and Maricar Reyes is the biggest production this year.

    Dahil sa Pag-ibig features the story of how the battling beliefs of Alfred (Pascual) and Oliver (Rosales) began from the greediness of Leo Valderama (de Leon).

    Completing the ‘powerhouse’ cast are some of the respected names in the industry such as Ronaldo Valdez, Sandy Andolong, Tetchie Agbayani, Rafael Rosell, Denise Laurel, Freddie Webb, Rey PJ Abellana, Carla Martinez, Joonee Gamboa,  Bing Davao, Melissa Mendez, Malou Crisologo, Cheska Iñigo, Jeffrey Santos and Edward Mendez; with the special participation of Joel Torre; and introducing young teen stars Ella Cruz and Francis Magundayao. The newest series is under the direction of Darnel Villaflor and Avel Sunpongco.

    Followers should watch for what the main characters will do in the name of love.

    (Published in the Manila Standard Today newspaper on /2012/March/23)

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    British Olympic great finally honoured – in Melbourne

    Posted on 18th March 2012 in The monuments of world
    Launceston Elliott, Britain's first Olympic medallist.

    Britain’s first Olympic champion, Launceston Elliott.

    BRITAIN’S first Olympic champion, the mustachioed and hulking Launceston Elliot, lay for decades in a grave marked with nothing more than number 960 in a corner of Melbourne’s sprawling Fawkner cemetery.

    Monuments had been built and commemorative postage stamps issued for Australia’s equivalent sporting legend Edwin Flack who, like Elliot, triumphed at the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.

    But as Britain’s Sports Minister Hugh Robertson confessed before witnessing the righting of his nation’s sporting history, even he didn’t know of Elliot’s feats, let alone what had become of him, until a month ago.

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    “I suspect if he’d been buried at home somebody might have twigged earlier on. We’re just grateful that it has been brought to our attention and that we can do something about it,” Mr Robertson said in Melbourne yesterday.

    Among the 30 present for the unveiling of a headstone that outlines his accomplishments was Elliot’s granddaughter, Ann Elliot Smith, who never met her grandfather. “My heart is bursting with pride,” she said.

    Conceived in Launceston, before his parents, who were of Scottish descent, married in Carlton, Victoria, in 1873, Elliot was born in India on June 9, 1874.

    After his father retired as a magistrate in Bombay, the clan returned to Britain and, as an impressively sized 16-year-old, Elliot entered the world’s first national weightlifting championships at London’s Piccadilly Circus in 1891.

    Three years later he was British champion and on March 26, 1896, he and the British Olympic team boarded the SS Congo for Athens.

    He entered the 100-metre sprint, rope climbing and wrestling events, but excelled in the discipline he was trained in. In the two-handed lift, Elliot tied with Dane Viggo Jensen on a weight of 111.5 kilograms, but Jensen’s execution was considered more stylish by judge Prince George of Greece, who had known Danish ties but no known expertise in weightlifting.

    The one-handed lift was contested on the same day and Elliot raised 71 kilograms above his head to Jensen’s 57.2. It marked Britain’s first Olympic triumph, yet the Athens committee could not afford gold medals so winners were presented with silver mementoes, an olive branch and certificate.

    By the 1900 Paris Olympics, Elliot had set four records at the amateur championships, but the sport was not on the program so he contested the discus. His throw of 31 metres ranked 10th but still set a British record.

    A change of direction after those Games had Elliot tap into showmanship. The star of a circus-style strongman act, Elliot led a troupe who performed in leopard skins and togas all over Europe and in South America.

    In retirement, soon after World War I, Elliot retreated to a farm in England before the family returned to Australia in 1923 and settled in Whittlesea. Following surgery on a cancerous growth on his spine, Elliot died in 1930, aged 56.

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    American Civil War anniversary: the battlefields where north met south

    Posted on 16th March 2012 in The monuments of world

    Another focal point is the Burnside Bridge, which an army of Union soldiers, led by General George B McClellan, attempted to cross, against a continuous curtain of Confederate fire from the bluffs above. The Federals finally made it, but too late – Southern reinforcements had arrived. I walk across the bridge and stroll the Snavely’s Ford Trail through a tranquil province of oak, poplar, sycamore and American beech.

    The trim town of Fredericksburg, about an hour south of Washington, lies midway between Washington, DC, and Richmond, Virginia (the Northern and Southern capitals respectively during the war), making it one of the conflict’s most hotly contested regions.

    There are four pivotal battlefields in the vicinity, including Fredericksburg city proper, Spotsylvania Court House, The Wilderness and Chancellorsville. This trip I stick to the city proper. Many of its red-brick buildings – now housing shops, historic inns and restaurants – existed during the Fredericksburg battle of December 11-15 1862, and I conjure in my mind a time when Union soldiers quickstepped along these very streets toward entrenched Confederates defending the heights behind the city – most of them headed for certain death.

    President Lincoln meets Union generals

    After visiting the battlefield and seeing the infamous Sunken Wall behind which the Confederates hid, I retreat to my attic-level, antique-filled room at the Richard Johnston Inn.

    The two terraced houses that comprise the inn existed during the battle (they date from 1770), and I could still see damage inflicted during the war on my attic room’s wooden beams. The proprietor tells me that a Confederate sniper named David haunts the house, but that doesn’t prevent me from having an exceedingly sound sleep.

    My triumvirate of Civil War towns is not complete without the biggest and most famous of all (at least in the North): Gettysburg. The South’s high-water mark of the war, Gettysburg is the farthest point fought in by the Southern forces. Here, on July 1-3 1863, they confronted (and lost to) the hunkered-down Northern troops, and were forced to retreat south to Virginia.

    Did you know?
    An estimated 620,000 soldiers died during the Civil War. Two thirds of them were killed by disease

    Perhaps the most significant event here, however, came several months after the battle, when President Lincoln presented The Gettysburg Address to dedicate the cemetery, one of the most celebrated yet briefest (at just over two minutes) “key” speeches ever delivered in the United States. Acknowledging the dead, he said: “The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”

    At first glance, Gettysburg is a touristy destination, with the entire town given over to marketing the war in battle-themed restaurants, hotels, souvenir shops and ghost tours (21 different companies offer them). Walking along Baltimore Street, I see a Northern soldier and a Southern soldier, re-enactors in town for a special event – sitting side-by-side on a pavement bench, while a bevy of Confederates mill about nearby.

    A memorial at Gettysburg

    Once on the famous battlefield, however, I can’t help but be pulled in by the visceral realities of war, by the sense of loss and tragedy and a sense of awe at the events that unfolded here. I stand atop Little Round Top, a granite knoll at the extreme left of the Union line, where Union soldiers had to fend off a desperate Confederate flanking move. The open view below makes it easy to visualise the various manoeuvres that occurred over those fateful three days: Pickett’s Charge across the mile-long open field; hand-to-hand combat at Devil’s Den; the famous Union defensive “fishhook” that followed strategic landmarks all the way to Culp’s Hill off to the right.

    It’s on the last, Culp’s Hill, where most people don’t go, that the war truly touches me. The rough terrain is steep and boulder-strewn and tangled with vines and trees. I head down a pretty trail through the woods, replete with monuments and historical markers that record the events of July 2-3, 1863, when 3,800 died in one of the seminal moments in the forging of America and its character.

    Later, back in town, I dine at the Dobbin House Tavern, a celebrated inn and restaurant that serves colonial-style cuisine in an authentic, candlelit setting – complete with hostesses wearing period dress and a menu with what, at first glance, appear to be spelling mistakes but actually are 18th- and 19th-century renditions.

    Leaning back on a soft armchair in the antique-filled dining room, tucking into pork tenderloin with raspberry sauce and sipping moscato, I revel in the relaxing, enjoyable ironies of spending a weekend on a battlefield.

    Getting there

    British Airways (0844 493 0787; britishairways.com) flies to Washington from Heathrow, as do United Airlines (0845 844 4777; united.com) and US Airways (0845 600 3300; usairways.co.uk).

    Getting around

    Rent a car to drive from Washington to Antietam (70 miles north west), Fredericksburg (50 miles south) and Gettysburg (75 miles north); it’ll also be useful for the battlefields; or cycle – all towns have local bike rentals; inquire at visitor centres.

    Further information

    Antietam National Battlefield (001 301 432 5124; nps.gov/ancm); Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park (540 373 6122; nps.gov/frsp); Greater Fredericksburg Tourism (540 373 1776; visitfred.com); Gettysburg National Military Park (717 334 1124; nps.gov/gett); Gettysburg Convention & Visitors Bureau (800 337 5015; gettysburg.travel/150).

    Anniversary events

    Battlefields throughout the South are arranging special events over the four-year course of the war’s 150th anniversary, typically including re-enactments, concerts, battlefield hikes, firing demonstrations, and more. Further information at the Civil War Trust website (civilwar.org/150th-anniversary/150-events).

    More Civil War sites

    Arlington House, Arlington National Cemetery
    General Robert E Lee and his family once lived in this Greek Revival-style mansion. In 1864, the army started burying soldiers on the Arlington estate – the beginning of Arlington National Cemetery (nps.gov/arho).

    Harpers Ferry
    Radical preacher and abolitionist John Brown staged his raid on the federal armoury in Harpers Ferry in 1859, kick-starting the southern states’ move toward secession. You can visit the armoury and museums that detail aspects of the war (nps.gov/hafe and historicharpersferry.com).

    Harpers Ferry

    Manassas
    The first major battle of the Civil War unfolded in July 1861 at this strategic railway junction 25 miles west of Washington. Washingtonians packed picnics and headed out in their carriages to “see the wah”. Union troops fled back to Washington, marking the First Battle of Manassas a Confederate victory. The next year, the armies clashed here again, with another Confederate triumph (nps.gov/mana).

    President Lincoln’s Cottage
    In 1862, 1863 and 1864, Lincoln and his family escaped Washington in this Gothic Revival, 34-room “cottage” three miles north of the White House. He wrote the Emancipation Proclamation here (lincolncottage.org).

    Richmond, Virginia
    Visit the American Civil War Center (tredegar.org), which examines the Civil War from the points of view of the Confederacy, Union and African Americans; the Richmond National Battlefield Park (nps.gov/rich); the Museum of the Confederacy (moc.org), including the former White House of the Confederacy; and Hollywood Cemetery (hollywoodcemetery.org), where Davis and 22 Confederate generals are buried.

    Appomattox Court House
    At the end of it all, on April 9 1865, General Robert E Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S Grant in this central Virginia village. A six-mile History Trail connects most of the historic sights (nps.gov/apco).

    The best hotels

    Antietam/Harpers Ferry

    The Jackson Rose B & B £
    General Stonewall Jackson headquartered in this 1795 federal town house at the beginning of the war; three guest rooms (001 304 535 1528; thejacksonrose.com; from $120/£77).

    The Angler’s Inn ££
    Victorian b & b on main street, with gourmet breakfasts and guided fishing trips (304 535 1239; theanglersinn.com; from $115/£74).

    Antietam Overlook Farm ££
    A 19th-century Keedysville farmhouse atop a secluded ridge overlooking Antietam Battlefield, with superb views and big breakfasts (800 878 4241; antietamoverlook.com; from $165/£105).

    Gettysburg

    Baladerry Inn £
    A field hospital during the war; three miles from the battlefield visitor centre. Rooms are warm and cosy, some with fireplaces and patios (717 337 1342; baladerryinn.com; from $124/£79).

    Brickhouse Inn £
    In the heart of the old town, this inn is located in two historic buildings: an 1898 mansion and a 1830 house that Confederate sharpshooters occupied during the Battle of Gettysburg (717 338 9337; brickhouseinn.com; from $114/£73).

    Gettysburg Hotel £
    Established in 1797 in the heart of town, with 119 rooms and suites with modern amenities and a rooftop pool (717 337 2000; hotelgettysburg.com; from $85/£53).

    The Gettysburg Hotel

    Fredericksburg

    The Kenmore Inn £
    A beautiful late-1700s mansion, with a sweeping staircase, high ceilings, canopy beds and nine guest rooms (540 371 7622; kenmoreinn.com; from $130/£83).

    Richard Johnston Inn £
    A genteel inn in two 18th-century houses with seven guest-rooms and two suites; it witnessed fighting on its doorstep (540 899 7606; therichardjohnstoninn.com; from $115/£74).

    The Schooler House B & B £
    Occupying a house built in 1891 and filled with antiques (540 374 5258; theschoolerhouse.com; $150/£96).

    The best restaurants

    Canal House Café, Harpers Ferry £
    Soups, salads, sandwiches and fresh baked goods (1226 W Washington St; 304 535 2880).

    Carl’s Ice Cream, Fredericksburg £
    Locals have been coming to this roadside stand since 1947; it’s now a national historic landmark (2200 Princess Anne St; 540 372 4457).

    La Petite Auberge, Fredericksburg £
    Traditional French cuisine with a menu that changes daily; the early bird four-course menu during the week is a steal at $23/£15 (311 William St; 540 371 2727).

    TruLuv’s: A Modern American Bistro £
    A neighbourhood bistro on the Rappahannock featuring seafood, sandwiches and burgers. Eat in the white-tablecloth dining room or on the patio overlooking the river (1101 Sophia St; 540 373 6500; truluvs.net).

    Gettysburg Food and Restaurant Saloon £
    Replicates a Civil War-era saloon in the museum and visitor centre.“Taste of the period” menu, including cast-iron chicken pot pie, chilli with Grandma Sarah’s cornbread, and peanut soup with “hardtack” soda crackers (1195 Baltimore Pike; 717 338 1243; lunch only).

    Bavarian Inn, Shepherdstown ££
    Overlooks the Potomac, across the river from Antietam; it’s a formal restaurant with an extensive German/American menu (164 Shepherd Grade Rd; 304 876 2991).

    Dobbin House Tavern, Gettysburg ££
    Beautifully restored Revolutionary War-era inn, with candlelit tables, waitresses in period dress, and a colonial-style menu (89 Steinwehr Ave; 717 334 2100; dobbinhouse.com).

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    MONROE: Students learn about countries at fair

    Posted on 10th March 2012 in The monuments of world
    Amy Batista, Special Writer

       MONROE — The Barclay Brook/Brookside PTA hosted its fourth annual Cultural Fair on Feb. 10 for students to come and celebrate cultures around the world.

       It was a collaborative effort of parents, teachers and administrative and school staff. The chairpersons for the event were Anandi Nagarajan, Foroozan Fayazi-Azad and Janet Baptista.

       Every student had the opportunity to learn and experience new countries’ cultures, customs, traditions, language and more as they “traveled” around the world.

       Tables were set up around the gym, and children rotated from one to another. The event has grown over the years from a one-day event in the classroom to multiple tables in the gym.

       Each year the tables are changed, and more detail is added. This year, 12 different countries were showcased — Australia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, England, Holland, India, Iran, Italy, Peru and Portugal.

       At India’s booth, students participated in a tradition known as Rangoli, which is a form of Hindu decorative artwork. It is mainly done with colored rice and done at times of the Festival of Lights to welcome friends and family outside the home or in courtyards for the goddess of wealth.

       The students built a collective Rangoli at the table as they learned about the country, and at the end, they received colored orange rice to helped design their own Rangoli, which the volunteer parents at the booth took a picture of for the students’ classroom.

       Students learned the costumes were made out of cotton fabric due to the year-round warm weather there. They also learned about the national bird, which is the peacock, and the tiger, the national animal.

       At the China table, students learned that the Chinese have 20,000 characters in their language. Due to the timing of the Chinese New Year, the students had the unique opportunity to learn a little about that holiday and the fact it is the Year of the Dragon. The panda is the country’s national animal.

       Volunteers, which were mainly parents with several teachers, hosted each country. Each table included a display board that could include pictures, artifacts, currency, newspapers in their language and more.

       Students learned how to say “hello” at each of the countries as they “traveled,” and some of the countries had the word written down for them. In addition, the country flags and maps were on display. Students also learned about food, art, music, dance, monuments and inventions.

       ”(The fair is) basically to help children understand the cultural differences, what it is like in different parts of the world and educate them,” said Komila Pandit, of Monroe, and a volunteer at the India table.

       ”The whole idea is that since it is a diverse community in Monroe, and we have the fair to explain the diversity and share the diverse cultures we have here in the community,” said Ms. Nagarajan, fair chairwoman. “An event like this really helps kids, who haven’t seen different cultures, understand where their classmates come from. It gives them a really good thing to connect with, and kids are so fascinated by all the different artifacts, different holidays, languages.”

       Many of the volunteers came dressed in traditional customs or a piece of clothing that represented something their country was known for. At the China table, a dragon face was on display that was made the previous week by Ms. Smits’ second-grade class at Barclay Brook School.

       ”It’s a great experience for all of us and the children. They get a taste of each country,” said Cindy Braun, of Monroe, who was volunteering at the Holland table.

       ”It all ties into our anti-bullying policies,” said Janet Baptista, of Monroe, who was volunteering at the Holland table. “You are learning about other cultures. So what, people might look different, they might eat different things. There’s no reason to treat them any different.”

       Students were encouraged to “show your colors” this year to make the fair more festive by dressing in their traditional cultural costume or wearing the colors of a country of their choice.

       The teachers do some kind of an assignment that ties into the fair, whether it was through a bulletin board display, recipe book, creating authentic passports, sending in travel logs to be posted on the fair website and more.

       Third-grade teacher Diana Mazurek’s class did a variety of projects over the prior week to prepare the students for the fair. Her students interviewed their parents about their heritage, wrote a recipe from their culture and drew their flag. Students completed a family tree, worked on their passports, then visited the fair.

       Ms. Mazurek volunteered the day of the fair. She represented her own country, the Czech Republic. This was her first time participating in the fair.

       ”A lot of the kids don’t know of this country (Czech Republic),” she said. “My mom’s side is from there. All the stuff (on the table) is from there. The crystal, the decorations, which I thought I would share with everybody. It’s nice sharing with all the kids.”

       Art teacher David Virelles has been sharing with his class over the week the basics of his country, Cuba, where his family and his father came from. He taught them about the agriculture, architecture, beaches, the island, the baseball plays, the famous celebrities that came from Cuba and more.

       ”There is excitement when the children come to Brazil,” said Tracey Dilascio, of Monroe, who was volunteering at the Brazil table. “The first thing they know about the country is soccer, and they all have questions, and so they are very curious after the presentation to know more.”

       New this year was an online fair. It is a website developed by PTA volunteers to put together in one place a collection of student-friendly information and activities about different countries.

       ”I enjoyed the Cultural Fair very much! It was great seeing artifacts and colorful pictures from different countries,” said fourth-grader Jahnvi Seshadri. “We also learned a lot about different customs and traditions in the different countries. When I visited India, I loved doing the Rangoli, The passport and online Cultural Fair was cool, too.”

       Students were able to write online to the PTA about a country they have visited and have their entry featured in the PTA Student Globetrotter Hall of Fame.

       ”I think the Cultural Fair was a great representation of America and a way to bring America together from different parts of the world and show that we can play together as a team and really build a community of like-minded people,” said Cecilia Afonso-Cavadas, of Monroe, who was volunteering at the Portugal table.

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    Eva Perón’s Buenos Aires

    Posted on 9th March 2012 in The monuments of world

    EVERY city has its heroes — people who, for whatever reason, leave an indelible mark. Washington is awash in monuments to past presidents. New Yorkers work and live in a grid of ancestral icons: Rockefeller Center, Peter Cooper Village, Astor Place. And Paris is studded with plaques honoring luminaries from Joan of Arc to Victor Hugo to Edith Piaf.

    Yet few cities are in thrall to a single person the way Buenos Aires is to María Eva Duarte de Perón.

    The wife of Juan Perón, who was president of Argentina from 1946 to 1955 and again in 1973-74, Evita, as she was known to her fans, lived in the capital for less than two decades before dying of cancer in 1952, at age 33. One of the most controversial and influential women in the Western world, to her supporters she was a saintlike defender of the poor; to her detractors, an irresponsible spender out for personal glory. Either way, her presence continues to be felt all over Buenos Aires and beyond.

    This year, the 60th anniversary of her death on July 26, her legend is being refreshed. A revival of the 1978 musical “Evita” by Andrew Lloyd Weber is to open on Broadway next month. In Buenos Aires, ceremonies, political speeches and a candlelight march will occur on the date of her death; special exhibitions at the Museo Evita and other institutions will be held throughout the year.

    But you don’t have to march or attend speeches to understand the bond between this city and Evita. The physical contributions she left behind throughout Argentina — a beach resort for the working class, a children’s amusement park, a shelter for unwed mothers — now mingle with museums, countless statues and extravagant monuments built in her honor. The latest: two enormous steel sculptures of her likeness soldered to opposite sides of the soaring Health Ministry Building.

    “There were no other women like her, especially other first ladies,” said Gabriel Miremont, the curator of the Museo Evita. “Mamie, Eleanor, even Jackie O. do not bring tourists to Washington as Evita does for Buenos Aires.”

    1. Where That Song Was Sung

    THE CASA ROSADA, also known as the Pink House, is the Presidential Palace, home to the balcony that Evita often used to address throngs of Peronists — known as the shirtless ones because many were poor laborers — gathered in the Plaza de Mayo and up Avenida de Mayo. It became iconic as the setting for “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” the signature song of the musical “Evita.” Free weekend tours of the palace allow visitors to peer from the balcony themselves. The Museo del Bicentenario, sometimes called the Presidential Museum, opened in 2011 behind the Casa Rosada. It contains objects related to the Peróns, such as presidential regalia, clothing and campaign posters.

    Calle Balcarce, between Rivadavia and Hipólito Yrigoyen, overlooking Plaza de Mayo: (54-11) 4344-3802; museobicentenario.gob.ar .

    2. Fashionista Must-Stop

    MUSEO EVITA Under Evita’s direction, the Argentine state bought this mansion in the tony Palermo neighborhood in 1947 and turned it into a shelter for single mothers. After Juan Perón was deposed in 1955, the building remained in government hands as an office for the disabled. In 2002, the 50th anniversary of Evita’s death, the building reopened as a museum showcasing her lavish wardrobe, as well as items from the Eva Perón Historical Foundation, including some of her early films. The foundation behind the museum is run by her grandniece, Cristina Alvarez Rodriguez. Its store sells Evita-related art and books. This year exhibitions will highlight the museum’s own 10th anniversary as well as the 60th anniversary of Evita’s death. The museum’s cafe, above, is popular for its light, Mediterranean menu and has become a lunch destination favored by Kika Tarelli, director of Buenos Aires Fashion Week.

    Calle Lafinur 2988: (54-11) 4807-9433; museoevita.org and evitaperon.org.

    3. Pay Your Respects

    DUARTE FAMILY TOMB, Recoleta Cemetery. After 24 years of being shuttled about Argentina and even being buried in Italy for a few years, Evita’s body came to rest in 1976 in this simple black tomb belonging to the family of her father, Juan Duarte. (He is buried in Chivilcoy, a few hours away in Buenos Aires Province.) Her admirers place flowers and notes at the tomb nearly every day, and the crowds grow to the thousands on July 26, the anniversary of her death. On Oct. 17, the date Juan Perón came to power, the arrangements — many from political leaders and unions — grow in size and number.

    Calle Junín 1790, at Plaza Frances; (54-11) 4804-7040; cementeriorecoleta.com.ar.

    4. The Place They Met?

    LUNA PARK Legend has it that a 1944 fund-raiser for earthquake victims at this concert and sports hall near the Puerto Madero neighborhood is where Juan Perón first laid eyes on the rising starlet Eva Duarte. The moment is marked by the song “Charity Concert” in the show, though some historians say it is likely that they had already met. Today the building is a great place to hear local rock favorites or aging American pop icons like the Village People and Liza Minnelli at prices significantly cheaper than they are in the United States.

    Avenues Corrientes and Bouchard; (54-11) 5279-5279; www.lunapark.com.ar .

    5. Even Her Corpse Was Controversial

    CONFEDERACIÓN GENERAL DEL TRABAJO The General Confederation of Labor is a union office building constructed by the Peróns in the late 1940s. Tourists will recognize it by the portrait of Evita on its central tower, lighted by an eternal flame. Her body was embalmed in this building and it lay here until 1955, when a military coup forced Juan Perón from power. (The body was brought back to Argentina in 1974 after a multi-country journey involving Spain and Italy.)

    The room where the body was embalmed is now a small museum, with photos from the period and the platform where the embalming took place. Nearby is the Fundación Eva Perón Engineering School. This imposing Doric-columned structure was once the headquarters for the Eva Perón Foundation, which she established to distribute money to needy families — and, some say, to draw funds for her personal use. The building bears a tiny plaque that is the sole remnant of its former use.

    For interesting souvenirs, visit the nearby Marcelo Toledo Gallery, where the silversmith Marcelo Toledo created a commemorative silver Evita collection, along with replicas of her jewelry, which are to be used in the Broadway show and worn on stage by Elena Roger.

    Azopardo 802 at Independencia; (54-11) 4334-0599; cgtra.org.ar. Fundación Eva Perón, Paseo Colón, at México. Marcelo Toledo, Humberto Primo 462; (54-11) 4362-0841; marcelotoledo.net.

    6. Women Only, Please

    CONGRESO AND THE SALON ROSADO OR SALON EVA PERóN The gray granite Congress building is among the most impressive neo-Classical -style structures in Buenos Aires. After women gained the right to vote in 1947, a wave of female politicians came into office. Evita opened the women-only Salon Rosado, or the Pink Room, so that they could discuss issues important to them without men around. Now called Salon Eva Perón and open to the public, the room bears a plaque explaining its importance, contains a bust of Eva Perón, and has retained its original furnishings. The building’s rotunda was a viewing site during the official two-week mourning period for Evita.

    Avenida Entre Ríos and Avenida Callao, at Rivadavia, overlooking Plaza Congreso; (54-11) 6310-7100; www.congreso.gov.ar.

    7. Oh I Could Tell You Stories

    LA MUESTRA DE EVITA, EL MUSEO DEL PUEBLO The museum, which opened in 2009 in a union hall, houses material related to public works from the Perón era as well as objects, like rare photos and old magazine covers, from Evita’s film and radio career from the late 1930s to 1945. Visitors might also have the chance to speak to one of the volunteers here who actually knew Evita. Eighty-something Clementina Beba Gil, above, worked on the women’s suffrage campaign and will happily tell stories from the time period.

    Avenida de Mayo 930 between Carlos Pelligrini (9 de Julio) and Suipacha; (54/11) 4341-8020, extension 310;lamuestradeevita.org.ar.

    8. Office Life

    CITY LEGISLATURE BUILDING This building, with its 318-foot clock tower, is just off the Avenida de Mayo, a few blocks from the Casa Rosada. Though its legislative chambers are still active, the building maintains one of Evita’s satellite offices for her foundation, which is open to the public. The room, now called the Salón Eva Perón, contains a desk, chair, lamp, folders and other objects she used. Nearby, see Evita Vive, a tango show celebrating her life, inside the Moreno Hotel Theater.

    Calle Perú 130 and Hipólito Yrigoyen; (54-11) 4338-3167; www.legislatura.gov.ar. Moreno 364; (54-11) 4343-0463; evitavive.com.

    Get Your Evita Here!

    9. BOUTIQUE NORA INIESTA At this appointment-only boutique, you’ll find creative, high-end memorabilia. Look for paintings, bric-a-brac and accessories for men and women, like Evita ties and scarves.

    Perú 715, between Chile and Independencia; (54-11) 4331-5459; cell(15) 5319-1119; from United States or Canada (54-9-11) 5319-1119; norainiesta.com.

    10. And Here She Is, 10 Stories Tall

    MINISTRY OF HEALTH BUILDING One of Buenos Aires’s tallest structures, the Ministry of Health was built by the Peróns and dominates Avenida Nueve de Julio. Because it was too large to demolish during the 1960s expansion of the avenue, a process that made it the world’s widest boulevard, the road simply goes around it. A stage at the base of this building was the site of a 1951 rally at which the crowd, estimated at two million people, called for Evita to announce her candidacy for vice president. (She decided against it.) Today, the building is home to the city’s newest Evita monument: two 10-story images of Evita’s face on the central tower, made of steel. The work on the south facade was unveiled on July 26, 2011, the 59th anniversary of her death, by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a former first lady herself who has drawn comparisons with Eva Perón. A defiant Evita on the northern facade harangues the city’s wealthy oligarchs, while on the south facade, facing a poor area, she is smiling. A few blocks away, dine at El General, filled with Perónist memorabilia.

    Avenida Nueve de Julio 1925 between Belgrano and Moreno; (54-11) 4379-9000; www.msal.gov.ar. El General, Belgrano 350; (54-11) 4342-7830; elgeneralctl.com.

    11. Bronze Goddess

    EVITA MONUMENT AND THE NATIONAL LIBRARY There was no official monument to Evita until 1999, when this bronze statue, reminiscent of a 1960s church sculpture, was unveiled. It’s on a hillside below the National Library, which sits at the site of the former presidential residence, where Evita died. (The residence was demolished after the coup.) The statue roughly marks the spot where Juan Perón had planned to build a colossal monument to himself, Evita and a symbolic worker, or Descamisado. After you’ve seen it, have coffee nearby at Un Café con Perón inside the presidential archive and research office Instituto Nacional Juan Domingo Perón, where tourists and locals pose with a statue of Juan Perón.

    Calle Aguero 2502 at Avenida Libertador: (54-11) 4808-6000; www.bn.gov.ar; Austria 2593 (54-11) 4802-8010; jdperon.gov.ar.

    BEYOND THE CITY

    The impact of Eva and Juan Perón extended far beyond the capital city, and was particularly strong in the Province of Buenos Aires, where Eva grew up. If you have soaked up all the Evita you can in the city, there’s plenty more a short drive or train ride away.

    12. QUINTA SAN VICENTE MUSEO DE 17 DE OCTUBRE AND JUAN PERóN MAUSOLEUM This country home of Juan and Eva Perón was built in 1947 in the well-to-do San Vicente suburbs, about an hour southwest from Buenos Aires. The interior dates to a renovation done in the 1970s, when Perón returned to power after being in exile for 18 years throughout Latin America and Spain. The museum contains his car collection and a car from the presidential train, as well as statues from a monument he planned to erect in Evita’s honor on Avenida Libertador before the coup. The museum garden is the now the final resting place for Perón, whose body was moved here from Buenos Aires’s Chacarita cemetery in 2006. A companion tomb was built for Evita, but her family will not allow her body to move here, saying it has been on too many journeys since her death.

    Intersection of Lavalle and Avenida Eva Perón, off Highway 58 in San Vicente: (54) 2225-482260; www.ic.gba.gov.ar/patrimoniocultural/17deoctubre.

    13. CIUDAD EVITA This homage to Evita is visible only by airplane (and Google Maps). The original street grid for this working-class neighborhood, about 13 miles southwest of downtown Buenos Aires, was designed to look like Evita in profile so that her face would be the first thing visitors flying in to the capital would see.

    Intersection of Highway 4 and Highway Ricchieri, near Ezeiza Airport.

    14. REPÚBLICA DE LOS NIÑOS; LA PLATA Built by Juan and Evita in 1951, this children’s amusement park, with a central fairy castle and munchkin-size buildings was said to be the inspiration for Disneyland in California. Just 45 minutes from Buenos Aires, La Plata is also home to the church where Juan and Evita had a secret Catholic wedding in December 1945.

    Camino General Belgrano and Highway 501, Gonnet, outside of La Plata; (54) 221-484-1409; www.republica.laplata.gov.ar. 15. LOS TOLDOS On May 7, 1919, Eva Duarte was born in this town, about 190 miles west of Buenos Aires. Her first childhood home is now a tiny museum. The building where the birth took place — on La Union ranch, where her mother, Juana Ibarguren, worked — was demolished by the owner so it would not become a shrine. Eva’s father, Juan Duarte, was a wealthy rancher married to another woman; he is buried about 50 miles east, in Chivilcoy.

    Evita Museum at the intersection of Eva Perón and Belgrano Streets, Los Toldos; (54) 2358-442473; evitadelostoldos.org.

    16. JUNÍN In the film version of “Evita,” this town, 156 miles west of Buenos Aires, is full of gauchos, dirt roads and wandering chickens. In reality, the place, with a current population of 80,000, where Eva spent her late childhood and early teenage years, had a thriving cultural scene that helped inspire her acting dreams.

    Eva lived in a few houses here, and though none are officially open to the public, owners will show visitors around. The Museo Histórico de Junín has a desk and other objects related to the civil marriage of Eva Duarte and Juan Perón, which took place here in October 1945. Numerous buses and, twice a day, a train, connect to Buenos Aires, letting you follow Eva’s journey to world fame.

    Museo Histórico de Junín, intersection of Quintana and Newbery Streets; (54) 2362-631629; www.junin.gov.ar.

    17. COLONIA CHAPADMALAL, MAR DEL PLATA Chapadmalal is the site of an enormous Bavarian-style beachside complex built by the Peróns for poor and working people in 1952 outside Mar del Plata, the country’s largest resort town, about four hours south of Buenos Aires. Though partly in disrepair, the complex contains an Evita museum with some of her clothing and other objects. Through this and other hotels in Mar del Plata, the Peróns transformed what was once a wealthy vacation spot into a working- and middle-class one. While anyone can visit the complex and museum, staying overnight involves a lengthy application process. Instead, stay in Mar del Plata at the recently renovated Hotel Presidente Perón.

    Colonia Chapadmalal Complex, Ruta Provincial 11, kilometer 549; (54) 223-469-9291; chapadmalal.org.ar. Hotel Presidente Perón, Tucuman 2600, Mar del Plata; (54) 223-495-1689; www.uthgramardelplata.com.ar.

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